An Innovative Plan for a healthier diet and a greener earth.
By Wendy Condrat Most of us are aware of how a better diet influences our mental, physical,and emotional well-being — providing more energy and eliminating sources of disease-causing foods.
Forks Over Knives (forksoverknives.com) has presented a great website with all the sound information on how to begin switching from a meat- and dairy-based diet to a fresh wholesome one.
When we begin eating whole unprocessed foods and fruits and vegetables, we will experience an unexpected amount of vitality avoiding those cancer-causing, diabetic inducing and heart-damaging substances which are some of the main contributors to our health crisis.
Take the first step by reading over why this diet makes sense. Look at some of the tasty recipes and try a few out. You will be amazed at how you feel after a meal!
When titling this “Drop the Knife!,” I meant only when at the table but use the knife to help chop up all the goodness and freshness in preparation.
Aim to begin incorporating more and more of these recipes into your weekly meals and see whether you are less interested in the old burgers and fries and more into a tasty plant-based Shepherd’s Pie.
And since this column is about environmental issues, note that this concept is great for reducing carbon emissions from the agricultural sectors and improving soils as well.
We need to honor our commitment to our family’s health and the greening of our Earth.
By Donna Johnson Worship Team Chair One of the silver linings of our current Zoom services is that we can add a visual component to our announcements by showing slides before and during the services. The Worship Team and Lori Varosh are happy to work with you to create slides to promote WUUC-related events if we have enough lead time. If you want to create your own slides either in PowerPoint or Google Slides, please submit them to Lori Varosh, office@wuuc.org, at least a week before they will be shown. They may be edited for brevity and accuracy.
Here are some things to consider for slides for Zoom services.
First, consider your goal. What do you want people to do as a result of seeing your slide? Then, aim for maximum impact. Consider that the slide may be shown at a time when people are just settling in for the service. You want to grab attention AND make it easy for people to understand quickly.
Keep it Simple – Complicated slides are hard to follow during a service. Less is more.
Use a maximum of 7 lines on the slide.
Use at least a 24-size font for main copy, 36-44 for titles.
Ask yourself if each word is necessary or just “nice to include.” Be clear about the purpose of the slide. You don’t need complete sentences.
Avoid busyness. Limit use of multiple backgrounds, graphics, and fonts. Don’t use more than two different fonts, avoid all caps, and make sure the font you use is very legible and easy to read.
Choose images carefully. Make sure that they serve the purpose of the slide. Avoid complicated or detailed images that are difficult to understand at a glance.
Please join us online on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021 from 4-5:30 p.m. as we kick off this year’s drive with a fun afternoon of conversation, community, and music! (Link to event details). You are encouraged to wear your favorite cooking attire, bring your favorite snack or make your favorite recipe. (Link to Event Calendar event).
The theme for our annual budget drive kicking off this month isCommunity starts in the kitchen. As we come together in our homes to nourish ourselves and our loved ones, we build our connections and feed our spirits. Our co-chairs for our first online pledge drive are David Blomberg and Stephanie Young.
David has been a part of WUUC since 2003. In his own words “…my wife Dawn wanted a spiritual place for our entire family, and WUUC is our perfect home. We love the community and cherish the friends we’ve made over the years. I am in awe of the work and commitment that the congregation makes in social justice issues and cannot wait until we can meet again for in-person services. I’ve been involved in a few committees over the years, but I have primarily donated my time to the Religious Education program with older kids. The youth of the church are as varied, talented, exceptional, and interesting as their parents, and they never cease to make me smile.”
Stephanie has been attending WUUC for just over 4 years. What has drawn her and kept her is the commitment to an “open hearted, open minded” community. Her first women’s retreat solidified it. Since then, she’s found that she is drawn to many of our classes, like OWL and Pondering, allowing for the opportunity to share and discover what’s inside herself and others. She volunteers in the kitchen, often reflecting on what her idea was growing up of “the little old kitchen ladies.”
December’s Advocates for Social Justice special collection raised $935 for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. The UUSC is a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization advancing human rights together with an international community of grassroots partners and advocates.
Our next special collection, during the service on February 21, will go to Root of Our Youth, a Washington-based group of high school and college students that are passionate about racial equity and appreciating all cultures and lifestyles. The Root of Our Youth is the student subcommittee of The Root of Us, and works closely with them on projects, rallies, and more to educate others. Their goals are based around policy reform and accountability in school districts. Check out this video The Root of Our Youth created last fall. To engage with and support The Root of Youth, attend the Equity & Me Teach-In on Saturday, Feb. 6, a multigenerational teaching and learning exchange. Deepen your understanding of eight key topics relevant to our current educational practices and leave with clear calls to action.
The ASJ Committee thanks WUUC members and friends for their generous support of our monthly special collections, which take place during services on the third Sunday of every month. Instructions for giving are posted during the service, and you can also donate anytime the following week at https://onrealm.org/wuuc/-/give/now, or by sending a check to WUUC at P.O. Box 111, Woodinville, WA 98072. Please make checks out to WUUC and write “ASJ Special Collection” in the notes.
Farmer Frog Delivery Crew
We’re very happy to report that WUUC has started regular fresh food deliveries for families living in the Greenleaf Community. We’ve been partnering leaders in Greenleaf since last summer through our Black Student and Family Fund and now as broader economic justice work. Thanks to the many volunteers who stepped forward, we now have a crew who regularly picks up fresh food from Farmer Frog, a local farm on Paradise Lake Road, and delivers it to the families at Greenleaf. This is a welcome resource for many families, especially as the COVID pandemic and its impact continues. Thank you again to everyone who volunteered, we had more interest than we could even use for this project.
Needed: We’ve learned that there are a couple of things that would be very helpful to have for distributing groceries to families:
1-2 canopy style tents for the Greenleaf leaders to use for cover on rainy days. (Soggy boxes and packages make it hard to sort out packaged food to distribute to families.)
Bags and/or boxes (paper or plastic) for sorting out food to distribute to family’s doorsteps.
If you’d like to contribute any of these items, reach out to pgreen@wuuc.org.
By Donna Johnson Worship Team Each month, WUUC explores a theme of the month. February’s Soul Matters theme is What Does it Mean to be a people of BELOVED COMMUNITY?
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Our ultimate end must be reconciliation; the end must be redemption; the end must be the creation of the beloved community. … It begins by loving others for their sakes and makes no distinction between a friend and enemy; it is directed toward both. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends.”
Beloved Community is hard. Henri Nouwen, teacher, activist and pastor, described beloved community as, “the place where the person you least want to live with always lives. …That person is always in your community somewhere; in the eyes of others, you might be that person. We need to be able to count on Beloved Community. We human beings run away from community not just because others let us down, but also because we doubt that others won’t step up when we let them down. Beloved community stays at arm’s length not just because it is hard to build, but also because we don’t trust that it will be there for us.
Beloved Community calls us to action. “…Our goal is not to have white people sit alongside a person of color so as to affirm that those white people aren’t racist. Our goal is to build and be part of beloved community, united to end structural oppression and unleash collective liberation in our faith communities, schools, neighborhoods, workplaces, and throughout society. … Our goal is to join our hearts and minds to the task of destroying white supremacy in every worldview, policy, law, institution, and governing body of our society. For our faith communities to be places of healing from the nightmare of racism that haunts people of color and white people…”
